Warriors-Pacers Preview

The Indiana Pacers keep rolling off victories even when they're not at their best.

The Pacers may need to step up their level of play to stretch their win streak to six Tuesday night as they look to continue their home domination of the Golden State Warriors.

Indiana (46-13) has won five straight for the fifth time this season, but the competition has hardly been stiff. These victories have come against Milwaukee (twice), the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston and Utah, all among the seven worst teams in the league.

Still, the last three have been a struggle. The Pacers blew a 17-point lead before rallying past the Bucks 101-96 on Thursday, trailed with less than six minutes to play before getting by the Celtics 102-97 on Saturday and shot just 41.5 percent in a 94-91 win over Utah on Sunday.

"This was a mental toughness win," coach Frank Vogel said. "I thought we played with extraordinary effort for four quarters."

David West led the way with a game-high 25 points as Indiana improved to 18-2 when he scores at least 17 points.

"He's our backbone," Paul George said of West. "Every time we struggle, he's there to lift us. We got to continue to be there for him, the same way he's there for us."

West missed nine of his 15 field-goal attempts when the Pacers visited Golden State (36-24) on Jan. 20, but finished with 17 while George has a team-high 23 in a 102-94 win. Fourteen of George's points came in the first quarter as Indiana raced out to a 35-21 lead.

Big opening quarters have been common for the Pacers when Golden State has visited Indianapolis. Indiana has averaged 31.2 points in the opening 12 minutes in the Warriors' last five trips, and it's averaged 113.2 total points in its six straight home wins in the series.

Set to play its fifth game on a six-game road trip, Golden State will be looking to continue its trend of alternating wins and losses after falling 104-98 in Toronto on Sunday. Stephen Curry finished with a game-high 34 points on 13-of-27 shooting, but the rest of the Warriors shot 39.3 percent.

It was Curry who struggled in the fourth quarter, though, committing four of his team's six turnovers that led to nine Raptors points -- and a come-from-behind win.

Golden State is 10-14 when Curry gives it away at least five times and 26-7 when he plays and commits four turnovers or fewer.

"Steph is good enough, no matter what defense he's seeing, to not leave it with six turnovers," coach Mark Jackson said. "He knows he's got to be better."

Curry had 38 during his last visit to Indiana -- knocking down 7 of 10 3s -- but committed six turnovers in a 108-97 loss on Feb. 26, 2013. West had 28, George Hill 23 and George 21 for Indiana.

Golden State, in a four-team battle for the final three playoff spots in the Western Conference, will play 13 of its final 20 games at home after facing the Pacers and the Celtics.

"It's going to be very important to get those wins," forward David Lee said. "We know the next two will be tough and that's a part of playing on the road. They are going to be very important games for us."

With wins at Indiana and Boston, Golden State will record the franchise's best road record against the East (11-4) since the league began playing 15 interconference road games in 1994-95.